


Metamorphosis

by MalisonQuill



Series: Roarsome Rex AU [1]
Category: The LEGO Movie (2014), The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)
Genre: Body Horror, Gen, Graphic Body Horror, I go into some detail here... not sure how bad exactly but please avoid if you're squeemish, Roarsome Rex AU, This is Rex turning into a half raptor man so it's gonna be monstery and spooky, im just warning you to be on the safe side, lego movie au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-02 12:51:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20276209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MalisonQuill/pseuds/MalisonQuill
Summary: From my random AU (that I mostly made for the design of Rex alone) where Rex decides to toughen himself up by genetically altering himself to give himself the increased strength of a raptor.Unfortunately this has a few... unintended side effects...And well, this is what happens when you mess with mother nature.





	Metamorphosis

**Author's Note:**

> FINAL WARNING! 
> 
> If you are not ok with body horror, TURN BACK NOW! 
> 
> This gets kinda heavy near the end. You have been warned. 
> 
> If you're still here, then enjoy >:)

It had worked.

The moment he stepped out of his genetic alteration machine, Rex _ knew _ it had worked. 

He could just _ feel _ the extra mass and strength of his muscles. Every single part of him felt like it was on fire, but he knew it was _ worth it. _

Two raptors came up to him, holding a full length mirror so he could get a good look at himself.

He still looked mostly the same, except his arms and legs were noticeably bigger and far more toned. He flexed his right arm curiously, noting he could feel more power from it as he tensed it up.

He gave a short whistle and a raptor appeared beside him with a cinder block. He took it from the raptor's claws and held it at both ends with his hands.

He twisted his wrists, and the thick cinder block immediately snapped in half and crumbled under his grasp.

He laughed with twisted pleasure as he let its remains disintegrate into dust and fall to the floor.

As he slapped his hands against each other to get rid of the concrete powder on them, he took another glance at himself in the mirror.

He noticed he looked a little paler than he had before, but he just chalked that up to the fact that his body was still recovering from being radically altered with raptor genes. He figured he'd go back to normal in a little while. After all, the burning sensation from when he'd first come out of the machine was fading now.

It seemed as if he'd gotten away without having any side effects to giving himself some added raptor strength.

  


\-----

  


Two days after his alteration, Rex noticed something was off. 

The paleness hadn't gone away. 

In fact, it had gotten more and more prominent.

He looked at himself in the full length mirror in the privacy of his quarters. He looked really, _ really _ pale. His skin even almost had a hint of a blue hue to it. But that wasn't the half of the weird little things that niggled at him.

On his arms, he noticed he now had weird marks that looked almost like bruises. But as he prodded at them cautiously, they didn't hurt at all. Plus they were far too uniform in size, shape and distance from each other to be caused by anything he'd done recently.

Then there was the strange toothache he'd been having. It had been easy to ignore at the start, but now it was something that consciously bothered him. He also wondered, as he absentmindedly ran his tongue over his teeth, if they'd gotten sharper.

But the weirdest thing of all had to be his eyes. 

He could have sworn they'd gotten greener. And last night, as he'd walked into his darkened bathroom, he thought he'd seen eyes shining in the reflection of his mirror (like a cat's did at night) for a split second before he'd turned his light on. 

He was very confused with it all.

But it was probably nothing. 

Yeah, he didn't need to worry about anything at all…

  


\-----

  


Ok now he was a little worried.

It had been over a week now, and none of the weird things had gone away.

In fact, things had just gotten weirder and weirder.

His eyes were now a very vibrant shade of green and his pupils were no longer round circles. They were thin slits, just like a cat's or one of his raptors...

His skin was also definitely some shade of light blue now, and the bruise-like marks had blossomed out into distinct, dark blue stripes. 

  


As he walked past a group of raptors, he heard them comment that the marks looked just like their stripes. But it wasn't until Rex was halfway through pouring some boiling water into a mug when he was making a cup of coffee, that he realised he wasn't wearing his universal translator.

Yet somehow, he had understood exactly what they'd said…

If none of this weirdness had been going on, then he would have assumed it was just his passing knowledge of their language and the meaning of their roars kicking in. But things being what they were, he couldn't help but add it to his growing pile of worries.

He turned around to go get a spoon to stir his coffee, but immediately he was hit by an energetic raptor having a mad half hour, which caused him to spill boiling water all down his front.

He stepped back in shock and the raptor froze. He snapped at it, intending to make a snarky scolding remark, but no words came out of his mouth. Instead, he let out a snarling roar that human vocal cords _ really _ shouldn't have been able to do. 

Everyone in the room went silent, and Rex quickly slapped a hand over his mouth. 

A number of raptors cautiously walked over to him in worry.

_ "Boss? Are you ok?" _One asked.

_ "Did you just roar?" _ Another one questioned.

He understood them perfectly without even having to _ think _ about translating their speech, which he _ really _ shouldn't have been able to do...

Slowly Rex lowered his hand from his face. Looking down at it, he saw faint specs of blood on the tips of his pointed fingers and suddenly became aware of a number of tiny sharp pains coming from his face that he'd been tightly holding only a moment ago.

His eyes darted up and around at the numerous concerned faces looking back at him. His frightened expression was quickly replaced by that of a stern scowl, as he let his hand fall to his side and started gesturing with his half empty mug.

"I'm _ fine! _ It's _ nothing! _ Now stop lollygagging and get back to work! C'mon guys, chop chop!" He shouted out irritability. After he'd said it, he felt a faint rumbling sound coming from the back of his throat. Quickly he swallowed, effectively stopping the noise before it could become audible to the others. 

The raptor who had ran into him earlier, Ripley, smiled at him sheepishly.

_ "You know, I quite like how you look boss! It's really cool! You almost look just like us!" _ She said.

Rex was taken aback. He looked at the stripe-like marks on his arms and thought about everything.

Maybe this was all a side effect of his gene alterations.

That had to be it. 

Ripley and the others were right, he did kind of look like a raptor now. And well, thinking about it, that was actually really cool!

This wasn't a bad thing! It was a rad thing! 

He was stronger like he'd wanted yeah, but now he could also understand his raptors without the aid of a translator, and maybe he could even learn to speak it too. That would help make everything more efficient. And well, if his eyes were now like theirs, then he'd be able to see in the dark a lot better too!

So yeah, these weren't bad side effects after all. It was all really awesome!

  


\-----

  


He was very, _ very _ concerned now.

Any notion of his predicament being cool had totally worn off.

Even the raptors had stopped thinking it was nice that Rex was looking more like them. Now they were just incredibly concerned for their boss.

  


It had been two and a half weeks now, and things were getting really, _ really worrying. _

  


Rex was now a shade of light blue all over, and the dark blue stripes on his arms, back and thighs now had patches of bright green inside them. Two bright green markings had formed around his eyes from his eyebrows down to his cheekbones, and his eyelids were dark blue, almost like he had really bad bags around them. His hair had also turned darker, and was now blue instead of brown.

His hands now had distinct claws that meant he could no longer wear his thick leather gloves without ripping them apart. 

None of his teeth were dull and flat anymore either. His mouth was full of razor sharp fangs that he kept catching the inside of us cheek on, and made him draw blood whenever he accidentally bit his forked tongue. 

But the most concerning thing of all was the _ constant pain. _

  


Everything ached.

  


His hands, his jaw, his legs, his _ spine, _ all of it. Every part of him.

It wouldn't stop no matter how many painkillers he chugged, no matter how little he tried to move, absolutely _ nothing _ worked.

The base of his spine and his feet and shins hurt the worst of all. Every step he took was like walking on shards of glass.

He tried to hold it all in, to be tough, to show no weakness, but his raptors could see through it. They knew how much he was hurting, but there was nothing they could do. Rex wouldn't accept their help. And he entirely ignored any suggestion that he should try and undo his alterations. He was far too proud to do that. He _ needed _ the added strength. He _ needed _ to be ** _tough_ **. He couldn't be weak little Emmet anymore. 

And if he had to become a _ monster _ for that to happen? 

_ Then so be it. _

  


\-----

  


It had all happened quite suddenly.

One moment, he'd been walking along the bridge trying to ignore the incessant aching from his legs and the base of his spine, but then the next he'd felt a sharp spike of agonising pain that made him instantly collapse.

A dozen raptors were at his side in a moment, roaring and whining in concern as they were at a loss at what to do.

Rex gasped and growled and whined as nothing but fiery hot, shooting pain overwhelmed him.

He shook violently all over, his body wracked by uncontrollable spasms. 

  


Something was incredibly, _ extremely _ ** _wrong_ ** _ . _

  


Something in his feet and shins was pulled taught, pushed beyond its limits.

And then it _ snapped. _

He screamed. Or maybe it was a roar. Or perhaps a mangled cry of both. He didn't know. And he wasn't really concerned with that right now anyway.

Parts of him moved and twisted and contorted in ways they _ really weren't supposed to. _

His shins felt like they were being crushed under tremendous pressure, as they shortened rapidly. Whilst in contrast, his feet were stretched out like they'd been pulled by some medieval torture device. 

His boots and trousers were torn to shreds as something exploded through them.

  


Then, something else suddenly shot out the bottom of his back. 

He slapped and clawed at the metal floor, tearing deep grooves into it as he let out a shrieking roar. 

  


Something behind him fell against the cold metal floor. He heard it thwump as it landed, and he felt an added weight pull against the muscles of his lower back. But he couldn't bring himself to look at it. He was too tired, reeling from too much excruciating pain to do anything but try and ride it out.

  


He laid on his side, staring blankly ahead as he did nothing but pant from exhaustion. 

  


After a couple of minutes one of the many raptors that surrounded him, Connor, hesitantly walked over in front of him. He sniffed Rex's hair, before gently bumping his snout against his forehead, chirping at him in worry. 

Rex looked up at him and shakily lifted his left hand up to give Connor a reassuring pat. Connor whined at him again, still incredibly concerned, so Rex gave him a weak chirp of acknowledgement to let him know he was (somewhat) ok. Connor nuzzled against his hand as Rex rubbed against his head. Around them, the others raptors moved in closer. 

They carefully sniffed him all over, being especially curious and cautious around his deformed legs and newly acquired tail. 

Many quiet roaring voices overlapped with concerned questions. But Rex couldn't focus on any of them. He tried to concentrate on grounding himself, on feeling the rough, yet soft texture of Connor's head against his hand as he patted him. It worked to an extent. Slowly the rest of his pain ebbed away and his breathing fell into a steady rhythm again. The raptors around him grew silent as they waited for Rex to do anything at all. 

  


Eventually he moved.

He stopped petting Connor and slowly moved his clawed hand beneath him to push himself up. 

He kneeled on all fours, before slowly moving his right leg to try and stand up. 

His whole leg felt weird as he bent it. It moved all wrong, like the joints weren't where they were supposed to be. The muscles felt all new, tendons moved and pulled in all the wrong places. But eventually, after a minute or so of fumbling, he was able to get both his feet under him. 

He rested most of his weight on his hands as he got used to holding himself up on his altered legs. He looked behind himself through his legs and saw a long striped tail dangling behind him, with half of it lying on the floor. He could feel it pulling on his back and the muscles around his abdomen as they supported it. He saw the end of it twitch and suddenly realised the movement echoed up through it, up his back, to be processed by his mind. Consciously he tried to move it. The end of it flicked up off the ground and he nearly toppled forward from the shift in weight. Luckily though, he was able to support himself with his hands long enough for him to lose focus on it, and have it drop back down. 

He stared down at the ground, thinking carefully about his next move. 

Hesitantly he pushed himself upwards, finally putting his full weight on his strange new legs. The raptors around him gasped in shock, but he paid them no mind. He was too focused on the seemingly impossible task of just standing upright. 

As he reached his full height, he wobbled slightly, very unsteady on his feet. A few of the raptors tensed, ready to reach out and support Rex if he needed it, but they hung back a moment, patiently waiting. 

Rex steadied himself and looked down. 

He was right, his shins had gotten shorter. They bent backwards at his knees at an almost right angle as his feet had lengthened considerably, meaning he now stood solely on what used to be his tip toes. But now they were wide with big, sharp claws that looked exactly like the feet all his raptors had. 

Then he turned his head around, the movement of his torso making him wobble slightly again before he was able to correct himself. He did indeed have a large tail. A whole new appendage that he knew he could control, but at the same time felt utterly alien to him. He really didn’t know what he was supposed to do with it. All it seemed to do right now was make him lose his balance. 

But it seemed to help the raptors out, so he supposed he could get used to it.

Well, scratch that. He _ had _to get used to it, didn’t he?

He was stuck with it all now. He had no idea if using the gene splicing machine would even be able to make him fully human again. He hadn’t exactly installed a fail-safe or anything.

Besides, he didn’t _ want _to undo what he’d done. 

  


This is what he’d set out to do, wasn’t it? This is what he’d _ wanted! _

He’d wanted to be _ stronger, _ to be _ tougher _ and _ he’d gotten that. _

After all, what could be tougher and more badass than an awesome, super strong, mutant raptor-man?

Who could _ possibly _take one look at him and not immediately think he was tough? That he didn’t have the most hardened heart in all the universe? 

He’d never be weak again now. He could probably just look at someone and roar, and send then running for the hills!

And well, no one would _ ever _mistake him for that weak, little twerp he used to be...

He was _ Rex Dangervest. _

He was a terrifying dinosaur that could rip out your throat as soon as look at ya. 

He was someone who could no longer be stopped.

  
  


He looked around at all his raptors, a wide, manic smile spread across his face, his razor sharp fangs gleaming in the light. 

He hunched forward slightly.

Then, he leant back and tilted his head upwards, letting out a powerful animalistic roar that echoed through the whole ship. 

His raptors all joined in, and together they made a chorus of screeching roars that let the whole universe know that they were not to be messed with. 

  
  
No one could _ possibly _ stand in the way of the unbridled fury a _ monster _like Rex, and his army of fellow raptors, were capable of...

**Author's Note:**

> So uh, today has been a pretty heavy, angsty day for me writing wise... 
> 
> I think I'm gonna go reread some fluff from my next Rex Brickowski story to lighten up my mood after all this...

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Dromaeosauridae](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20325691) by [cuddlesome](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuddlesome/pseuds/cuddlesome)


End file.
